France hails new Airbus helicopter factory in Romania

Romania – Bilateral relations/inauguration of the Airbus Helicopters site – Statements by M. François Hollande, President of the Republic, in his joint declaration to the press with Mr Dacian Cioloş, Prime Minister of Romania

Braşov, 13 September 2016

Prime Minister, ministers, ladies and gentlemen, you who are responsible for this great business and who are going to build here not just a factory but helicopters that will be the pride of France and Romania,

There’s a long-established aerospace tradition here in Braşov between France and Romania, but this is a project on a whole new scale. It’s no longer about repairing, it’s about manufacturing helicopters that will be at the cutting edge of technology. It’s a French-Romanian project, it’s a European project, and here I pay tribute to our German friends, who are directly involved in the goal we have here: to supply helicopters for civilian use in particular, but also for military use.

With this Super Puma H215, we have proof that we can build cooperation which is beneficial to both countries. The jobs being created here are not to the detriment of jobs in Germany, France or other European countries. The jobs that will be created here will lead to other jobs being created in France. Furthermore, we have a relationship where staff will be trained in France and here, in order to have the qualification levels enabling the manufacturing to be as successful as possible.

So it’s a project with a European dimension, because it’s also intended to consolidate the European defence industry; that’s what we want to do, and it’s what I’ll have to propose in a few days’ time at the summit of the 27 in Bratislava, because we must have cooperation on defence materiel that can put Europe in a position to carry forward a European defence policy. It is of course a considerable project, with €50 million of investment, the Romanian state has played its part in it, and this project has very great potential in terms of sales, because we’re now going to ensure we put this helicopter on the market. It’s certain that if Romania began by purchasing the helicopter we’d be very happy and very proud, and at the same time it’s an aerospace tradition. The helicopter would then have a Romanian name, because that’s how we conceive the project.

We also wanted a lot of French businesses to join the aerospace industry we’re currently building at European level, and I’m sure the Braşov factory will perfectly execute the future contracts it will be provided with.

Finally, I want to say that cooperation between France and Romania is of course based on culture, language and a shared destiny uniting our two peoples. But we are, as we can see, looking at a project which demonstrates that we – France and Romania – intend to build our relationship and our partnership on the future and on excellence.

So long live the Super Puma H215, long live Airbus, long live France and long live Romania!./.